Archive for the ‘dyes’ Category

I enjoy keeping up with Big Food’s product releases. Not only is it mind-blowing to see how many different ways you can rearrange crop subsidies, unhealthful oils, and added sugars to come up with “new” items; it’s also fun to see what front-of-package health claims and call-outs are trotted out.

The three products below may be new on the shelf, but the “wholesome and healthy” deception is the same old dog and pony show.

As important as packaging and transportation are to environmental concerns, it turns out that ingredients also matter. Processed foods are consumed at all hours of the day, but one of the most startling examples of foods high in petroleum-derived ingredients can be seen with popular breakfast products — especially cereals. The ingredients listed below do a better job of feeding our food system’s reliance on petroleum than they do nourishing our bodies.

Yesterday afternoon, Small Bites reader Raquel Cordero Perry notified me of a rather peculiar product she spotted at her local supermarket — edible Easter basket grass (pictured at right)!

Well aware of my obsession with ridiculously processed fake foods, Raquel (very accurately) thought I would get a kick out of this unidentified food object and sent me a photo of the product’s front package. Little did I know I was on the verge of coming across one of the most junky, artificial, processed foods I’ve encountered in quite some time.

Cheesecakes run the dietary gamut. From raw vegan varieties to low-carb versions to the monstrosities unleashed by The Cheesecake Factory, there truly is a type for everyone.

While those Cheesecake Factory creations can certainly be considered “blog worthy” (with their huge portions and nutrition figures that defy human comprehension), it is Jell-O No Bake Real Cheesecake products that really hit processed-food gold.

According to the packaging, “your friends and family will think that you made dessert from scratch!”. The product’s website unashamedly describes these as “homemade delicacies”.

Alas, unless you call a chemical-laden warehouse packed to the gills with industrial machinery “home”, very little about this product screams “made from scratch.”

Ah, that ubiquitous marketing tactic known as the “health halo” appears to be multiplying.

You know the drill. Take minimally nutritious food, sprinkle one fiftieth of a pinch of “something healthy”, and market the living *bleep* out of said ingredient on the product’s packaging.

Consider these recently-spotted offenders:

Cinnamon Chex. “With a touch of real cinnamon,” no less. Cinnamon offers fiber, manganese, and heart-healthy phytonutrients and antioxidants. Alas, this cereal contains more sugar, oil, and salt than it does the sweet spice.

Betty Crocker Quick Banana Bread Mix. “With real bananas,” the box touts. The bananas are in there, alright. As dried flakes. Right after white flour, sugar, and partially hydrogenated oils. PS: Each of the finished product’s twelve servings offers up an entire gram of trans fat.

Yoplait Go-Gurt Strawberry Splash & Berry Blue Blast portable yogurt flavor-combination packs. There isn’t a single strawberry or blueberry in either yogurt, not even in dehydrated or powdered form. Instead, we get artificial dyes (the same ones banned by the European Union) and flavors.

Oscar Mayer Lunchables Sub Sandwich, Turkey and Cheddar. This is described as “more wholesome” than previous varieties. Does this ingredient list scream “wholesome” to you?

Thank you to Small Bites intern Laura Smith for valuable assistance with this post.

I googled astaxanthin and found a website talking about how it’s an antioxidant and prevents cancer and is necessary for the healthy growth of the farmed salmon.

Surely that can’t be true.

— Kristin
Via the blog

That is technically true, but there is more to this story.

While both astaxanthin and canthaxanthin are deemed safe by the Food & Drug Administration (although people trust that organization to varying degrees), certain concentrations of canthaxanthin have been associated with eye defects.

Interestingly, different countries have different ideas of how many parts per million of that synthetic dye are “safe.”

That being said, the vast majority of salmon farmed in the United States and Europe is only fed astaxanthin.

In other parts of the world, though, farmed salmon is only fed canthaxanthin (it is the cheaper of the two dyes.)

I still would not be too worried. You would need to be eating a LOT of salmon dyed with canthaxanthin to be affected.

What all of this ties into, though, is another controversial topic – COOL (Country of Origin Labeling.)

Although it is required for all fish sold in the United States, I have seen it very sparingly in supermarkets.

As far as I am concerned, the core issue surrounding these food dyes isn’t so much possible health repercussions, but rather truthful advertising to consumers.

If farmed salmon were to either remain gray or be dyed another color (say, white), then consumers would immediately know they are not purchasing a wild variety, and there would be no room for mislabeling (remember this infamous study by Marian Burros of The New York Times?).

Since farmed salmon is nutritionally inferior to its wild counterpart (more saturated fat, higher Omega 6 fatty acid content, lower Omega 3 fatty acid content), people should not be left in the dark.

This is not to say farmed salmon should completed avoided or viewed in the same light as deep fried fish nuggets, but consumers have a right to know exactly what they are putting on their plates.